Apple has announced that it will replace the hard drives on MacBooks bought between 2006 and 2007 if you can prove that your hard drive has failed. The offer is open until August 15th of this year, or three years after the MacBook was purchased. Get additional details (via Gizmodo)

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You’ve spent hours of time on the development of an iPhone or iPad application. You’ve spent time making sure your app works right and looks a certain way and now that it’s done, you’re convinced that your app is so good it’s just going to sell itself. Wrong, think again.

It’s not a secret that you need to do more than just throw your new application up on the app store and hope for the best. Not all apps are good enough to sell themselves, and in fact majority of them fall short from even attracting a modest number of users. The current structure of the app store is not designed to help developers promote their apps, even if you do create the most amazing app anyone has ever seen. With over 150,000 apps on the app store, good design alone isn’t going to skyrocket you to the top of the charts. An effective marketing plan combined with a well designed app however, can elevate all those hard spent efforts to the top of the pack in record time and make all your efforts worthwhile.

In order for people to download and use your app, they have to find it first and that can be difficult to achieve. The only way that large numbers of people are going to know that your app exists to download, is if an all out effort is made to get it out there in the public eye. You need to be social with it, be visible and talk about your app every you chance you get. The more public your app is, the more visibility it will have and the more downloads it will get.

Sounds simple, right? Well not exactly. If you’ve got the money you can hire an agency that understands your product and the audience you are targeting and let them drive the marketing efforts. However, if like most startups or indie developers or anyone else who’s on a budget then you need another more affordable alternative. Guess what, you’re in luck. You can successfully market your app with 1 or 2 people dedicated to the efforts. Ideally those people should have a background in marketing, but if you don’t have the budget to hire someone to help, you can accomplish a lot of it yourself with a little determination and focus.
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